Press Release

South Coast Repertory’s 2018-19 season opens with Jane Austen’s romantic classic Sense and Sensibility. The season also includes the award-winning musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; the clever comedy Native Gardens; the compelling drama M. Butterfly; the madcap comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; the intriguing portrait of science pioneer Rosalind Franklin in Photograph 51; and the return of Southern California satirists Culture Clash.

Subscriptions are currently on sale and single tickets will become available in June.

“We’re enthusiastic about what next season has to offer,” said SCR Managing Director Paula Tomei. “The range of work is both compelling and entertaining and we look forward to the experience that our audiences and artists will have when they join together.”

Associate Artistic Director John Glore said, “Our upcoming 2018-19 season celebrates the best in contemporary theatre, with great plays from Broadway and London’s West End and from some of SCR’s favorite artists—including David Henry Hwang, Karen Zacarías, Stephen Sondheim and Culture Clash.”

Rounding out the theatre’s 55th season are two world premieres in the Pacific Playwrights Festival—to be announced at a later date—and the three-play Theatre for Young Audiences series, which includes The Velveteen Rabbit.

Chronological Listing for 2018-19
All dates and plays are subject to change.

Sept. 1–29, 2018
Sense and Sensibility
By Jane Austen
Adapted by Jessica Swale
Segerstrom Stage
The Dashwood sisters—practical Elinor and impulsive Marianne—are of good social standing and marriageable age. When Father dies and their half-brother skimps on their inheritance, they are forced to leave their grand estate for a tiny, cold cottage. Just as life seems it’s bleakest, a handsome stranger arrives on horseback and the sisters are convinced their futures are secured. Follow Elinor and Marianne as they chase their dreams from Devonshire to London and back in this charming romantic classic.

Sept. 30–Oct. 21, 2018
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
By Christopher Durang
Julianne Argyros Stage
Vanya and Sonia share a country house where they fret endlessly—and amusingly—about their hapless lives. When Masha, their self-absorbed movie-star sister, and her much, much younger boy toy, Spike, visit for the weekend, the entire household gets hilariously upended. Rivalries are rekindled, resentments rage, the housekeeper blurts out strange prophecies and Masha announces she’s selling the house. A tongue-in-cheek homage to Chekhov.

Oct. 13–Nov. 10, 2018
Native Gardens
By Karen Zacarías
Segerstrom Stage
In this comedy of good intentions and bad manners, Pablo and Tania personify the American Dream—young, educated, a baby on the way and new owners of a suburban fixer-upper. Virginia and Frank couldn’t be happier or more welcoming, especially when the new next-door neighbors want to replace an ugly chain link fence dividing their yards. But a dispute over the property line quickly spirals into an all-out war on taste, class and entitlement.

Nov. 2–18, 2018
Nate the Great
A New Musical
By John Maclay and Brett Ryback
Theatre for Young Audiences
Nate the Great, the world’s greatest kid detective, loves solving mysteries—almost as much as eating pancakes. When Annie’s special painting of her dog, Fang, goes missing, Nate’s on a new case! Did Fang bury it? Is Rosamond, who prefers cats over dogs, up to foul play? Come along as Nate searches for clues and gathers the facts in this clever musical that teaches us to see the world in new ways.

​Nov. 24–Dec. 24, 2018
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
Adapted by Jerry Patch
Directed by John-David Keller
Segerstrom Stage
Nineteenth-century London comes to life when your family joins the SCR family for the holidays. Recapture the spirit of an old-fashioned Christmas with this timeless Dickens classic and all your favorite characters—Tiny Tim and the Cratchit family, the Fezziwigs, the Ghosts of Christmas past, present and yet-to-come—and, as always, Hal Landon Jr. as everyone’s favorite curmudgeon, Ebenezer Scrooge, for the 39th consecutive year.

Dec. 30, 2018–Jan. 20, 2019
Culture Clash
Written and performed by Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza
Julianne Argyros Stage
Those bad boys of comedy are back at it, bringing their special style of irreverent, thought-provoking social satire with them. SCR audiences first experienced their smart, outrageous humor in a playful adaptation of The Birds and later with the wildly popular Culture Clash in AmeriCCa. With the world back under their microscope, expect laundry to be aired, public figures skewered and sacred cows poked. In other words: Classic Culture Clash!

Jan. 19–Feb. 16, 2019
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Segerstrom Stage
In a barber shop above Mrs. Lovett’s struggling pie shop, Sweeney Todd plots revenge on the lecherous judge who wronged him and his family. In the seedy underbelly of 19th-century London, desperate times lead to diabolical schemes—and strange alliances. With razor-sharp wit and extraordinary songs like Pretty Women and Not While I’m Around.

Feb. 1–17, 2019
Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience
Based on the book Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems
Script and Lyrics by Mo Willems
Music by Deborah Wicks La Puma
Theatre for Young Audiences
Wilbur is different from all the other Naked Mole Rats. He wears clothes—and he likes it. His friends think it’s ridiculous and needs to stop—that’s just a Naked Mole fact. After all, what will happen when Grand-Pah, the oldest and wisest elder in the colony finds out? Filled with tail-shaking good tunes, this outrageously fun musical proves it’s okay to be yourself. Rock on!

March 3–24, 2019
Photograph 51
By Anna Ziegler
Julianne Argyros Stage
Rosalind Franklin was a British pioneer in science in the early 1950s, yet her groundbreaking role in the discovery of DNA’s double helix structure is still often overlooked. Based on a true story, Photograph 51 presents an intriguing portrait of a complex, courageous woman making her way in a male-dominated field. While rival teams of researchers compete for a breakthrough, Rosalind, focused and unbending, is locked in a race of her own.

March 30–April 27, 2019
TBA: A World Premiere
Part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival
Segerstrom Stage

April 14–May 5, 2019
TBA: A World Premiere
Part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival
Julianne Argyros Stage

May 11–June 8, 2019
M. Butterfly
By David Henry Hwang
Segerstrom Stage
When this rich, compelling drama debuted on Broadway, it became an instant sensation, sweeping the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. A married French diplomat. A mysterious Chinese opera diva. A passionate 20-year affair. Inspired by true events, this break-out hit by the author of Chinglish and Golden Child proved much more than a steamy tale of seduction. Obsession, perception and the allure of fantasy make for a remarkable tale of espionage and betrayal.

May 24–June 9, 2019
The Velveteen Rabbit
By Margery Williams
Theatre for Young Audiences
For nearly a century, this beloved classic has captivated and charmed children and adults, alike. Lonely and forgotten, a stuffed rabbit longs to be real. When another toy is lost, he quickly becomes a little boy’s new favorite. As the rabbit’s dapper appearance gets worn and shabby from play, a wonderful change begins to happen. This is a moving story about the power of love—and a little bit of magic.